While the exhaust manifold temperature is the most dramatic number it is by no means the only impressive number to consider. The turbo hot side number showed a drop of 181°C to 180°C from 361°C with the addition of the Lava Turbo Shield. The combined shielding also protected the cold side which, while unshielded, showed a drop of 39°C.
You can see the HeatShield Products wrapped downpipe just below the front of the NX. The front openings in the nose, which hopefully remind you of the nose of the Pulsar GTi-R, have been enlarged for 2018. There is stainless steel mesh shielding there that is simply not evident in this photo. And the black patch in the driver’s side lower front corner is an air inlet (also shielded with stainless steel wire mesh) to capture air for the oil cooler.The gorgeous WeirTech divorced downpipe, possibly the only one in existance for the FWD SR20DET, works incredibly well but it certainly puts off a lot of heat. Fabricated completely with parts from Vibrant Performance, I really love this piece but also know that it adds a fair bit of heat to my engine bay. The 2017 temperatures were 245° C which puts it third on the list for hot spots in the engine bay. The HeatShield Products wrap brought this down by 72°C to 173°C.
The 4″ opening in the lower front corner of the front air fascia captures air which is ducted through the wheel well and right onto the underside of the GSpec performance oil cooler. The hot air is then vented out through the hood.The balance of the temperature drops was good but not nearly as dramatic as these first three. One anomaly is the oil cooler which has gone up – but this can be explained. For 2018 I have removed the motorcycle rad fan that was pushing air through the oil cooler. As a result, when sitting heat soak hits it harder and the oil temperatures at the cooler actually increase.
While recording the temperatures, I did so in the order listed. As a result, the oil cooler temps are checked after it has been sitting for a few minutes. While I removed the motorcycle fan, this was replaced by ducting that comes in from the driver’s side front corner. This is then vented through the hood (as previously) so is much more effective while the car is moving.
So much so that right off the track AES Auto’s owner/fabricator/tuner Paulo, who pushed me to ventilate the oil cooler in this manner, came up right after the first Knox Mountain run and put his hand right on the oil cooler. No issue and a braver man that I, who did not risk my lily white palms. So while the 104°C temperature is accurate in keeping with the standard I had set out last year, in fact the G-Spec Performance oil cooler is now performing much more effectively than in 2017 and previously.
There is no doubt in my mind that the combination of the HeatShield Products and the Koyorad resulted in significantly reducing the operating temperatures of the NX GTi-R. Of course, that was combined with several refinements that I detailed in the last article on the Koyorad to ensure that there was improved air flow to ensure that the cooling system was able to perform effectively. Another variable that I believe assisted in the car running cooler was the addition of the ECUMaster Classic.
I know that I could have found a tuner who probably could have made the ECU that I purchased while still in Ontario work. However, that would have meant leaving my tuner, Paulo at AES Auto. I am working with AES Auto and their choice of ECU was ECUMaster. The business rapport and friendship that I have with AES made it simple. One shop! I got an ECUMaster Classic and both my car and myself are happy campers.
